Opinion on Immune Tolerance Therapeutic Development

Abstract

Immune tolerance is defined by an active state of immune system unresponsiveness to foreign and self-antigens. Loss of immune tolerance to self-antigens and the resulting overexpression of autoantibodies can lead to tissue injury and development of various autoimmune diseases. In drug development, the goal of newly emerging immune tolerance therapies is to treat autoimmune disorders by restoring the immunoregulatory capacity of the immune system. Development of immune tolerance targets is initiated with the establishment of pharmacological efficacy in relevant disease animal models, followed by their stepwise translation to humans. This review discusses the major challenges to developing tolerance inducing pharmaceutical drugs, including the selection of appropriate disease models to establish efficacy, adequate, and acceptable in vitro and in vivo safety assessments, relevant biomarkers of human safety and efficacy, and finally, some regulatory guidelines to successfully develop immune tolerance therapeutics. [Box: see text]